A/N: This past week I got physically sick while at work (which, with the holidays, is the busiest time of year for us, so that sucked). And then on Sunday I came down with a cold. So, I figured, why not write some fic about being sick to help make myself feel better? And thus, this happened. Also, it's partially inspired by a sentence in Zadien's fic Get Inside (which you all need to read right now! Go do it!) about Kai not wanting to take care of someone when they're sick. Sometimes writing about our own experiences is the best way to get my creative juices flowing. I meant to have this up yesterday but, y'know, with Christmas festivites it kinda got pushed to the wayside. Anyway, please read and review! Let me know what you think!

Pillow

By: Cerulean Musings

She'd thought about moving but her body rejected that idea and had her, once again, sprawling out against the length of the couch once more. She'd never felt so sick in her life. She didn't get sick. She liked to think she kept herself pretty healthy; she worked out twice a day, practiced yoga, ate organic as much as possible (with a few slip-ups being led by her massive sweet tooth, but everyone was allowed a chocolate cheat, right?), and drank a lot of water. She did everything right and, still, she found herself stricken with the worst headache and stomach pain she'd ever felt. The bitch.

Crystal tried to lift her head from the arm of the couch only for it to pound in protest. With a groan, she laid back down. Her cheek pressed up against the rough material as a wave of nausea crashed through her. Beads of sweat dotted her forehead and she wondered if she made a mistake turning down Ray's offer to stay.

She shooed that notion away with a winkle of her nose and a wave of her hand. He couldn't miss his flight back home to China. He'd been looking forward to his return for weeks. And it wasn't as if he needed to stick around. School had started up again: Max already went back to America, Tyson, Hilary, and Kenny spent most of their days attending classes and studying, and Kai went into the workforce as he joined Hiwatari Enterprises. They were all busy and he could take some time away for himself.

Plus, she didn't want him hovering over her like he had been the minute she woke up and complained of an upset stomach. He managed to usher her onto the couch and drape a blanket over her but, past that, she fought him away with kicks of her feet and a clamp on her lips. She didn't need him to take care of her; she'd been taking care of herself for years. She wasn't his responsibility and, besides, he didn't need to be around when she threw up.

Her hands flew down to her stomach when another painful cramp squeezed tight. Her entire body curled up as sour saliva collected in her mouth. She leaned her head over the side of the couch and spat into the bowl placed on the floor, just in case. A hot flash swept over her body and collected beneath the blanket she lay under, of which she kicked away for some sort of reprieve. God, she hated being sick, feeling so weak and tired and drained and miserable.

She grunted. Miserable. They wouldn't be the only ones miserable that day. She promised Mr. Dickinson that she'd stop by the newly reformed BBA to help teach some of the kids in their beginner beyblading classes. She'd been looking forward to it for days and now…this. Placing her hands on the couch, she tried to push herself upwards into a sitting position. Maybe if she could at least sit up…

But then she lurched forward, grabbing the bowl and barely had it lifted upwards to her face when her stomach seized and the little bit of rice and fruit she'd had for breakfast came back up in a discolored mush. Her eyes blurred, and a stabbing pain shot through her head. Her stomach clenched again, more food came up, past her quivering lips. Her throat burned and sweat slipped down the side of her forehead. Only when her stomach finally stilled did she flop back against the couch and wipe her mouth with the back of her hand. Saliva remnants smeared against her skin and she aimlessly brushed it away.

Going to the BBA was out of the question. Her mouth twisted to the side in disdain. She'd always been one to honor her commitments. If she made a promise, she was damn well going to do everything she could to fulfill that promise no matter what. Broken promises hurt more than false hope, she firmly believed. False hope may be a marker of deceit but, for her, a broken promise marked a direct intent of unimportance. And seeing the kids, helping teach them to learn a hobby that she loved, to see that look of satisfaction on their faces when they had successes was important to her. But as Ray liked to point out—no less than three times that morning—she couldn't help them until she could help herself so, perhaps, resting up was the better idea for the day.

Crystal managed to bring grab the abandoned laptop at the end of the couch up onto her lap and signed in. She smiled at the group picture of the Bladebreakers team on the desktop as she waited for her previous pages to load. She couldn't wait for them all to get together again. She already missed the noise and chaos that came with hanging around them and they hadn't been apart that long. When did they grow on her?

Giving her head a shake—of which she immensely regretted the moment another pang of pain hit her—she brought up an email and quickly composed a message for Mr. Dickinson, explaining she was ill and wouldn't be able to come in. Then she CC'd Kenny, figuring he'd pass the information onto Hilary and Tyson so they would know not to wait for her to walk home from school like they always did. She hesitated, the pointer resting over the send button, and then she moved it back to the CC field and added in Kai's name. Not that it mattered if he saw it, he was busy doing who knows what at his family company, but she decided to keep him in the loop because it was the nice thing to do.

And while she had the computer up, she could treat herself, nicely right? Or so she convinced herself when she brought up YouTube and settled in with a plethora of videos of panda cubs rolling around fields and clinging to handlers. They never failed to put a smile on her face, no matter how down or ill she felt.

She didn't know when she fell asleep; last she remembered she was watching a video of a panda cub that kept trying to climb into a basket that a handler was trying to fill with leaves when something poking her cheek startled her out of sleep. She flailed, jerking upwards only to groan and lay back down a second later when her stomach turned. She turned her head to the side, prepared to throw up, and her eyebrows knitted together.

"Aren't you supposed to be at work?" she rasped, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

"Drink this," Kai replied, shoving a mug into her hands.

She first made a face at his brusque tone—she was sick, he could be a bit nicer!—and then it was directed at the scents wafting up from the bronze colored liquid. Or, rather, the scents coming from it. "Is this from Ray's stash?" she asked. They'd all been at Tyson's for so long it was inevitable that they ended up leaving their own touches behind. Max had his own bottle of mayonnaise in the fridge and Ray had a series of jars in a cupboard of loose tea to fit every mood and fancy that may arise. He preferred it fresh to using a tea bag. "Does he know you've been dipping?"

Kai didn't reply, merely lifted an eyebrow and gave her a hard look. Huffing, she brought the tea up to her mouth and took a tentative sip. The flavors hit her at once and she hummed. Peppermint and ginger. Of course. It was the first thing her stomach hadn't rejected all day.

"So." She leaned forward and placed the mug on the coffee table that Kai had perched upon. "Are you playing hooky from work?" She grabbed the blanket and pulled it up and around her shoulders, wrapping herself up. "Your day must be so boring without us around, huh?"

He shrugged. "Different monkeys, same circus," he replied.

Crystal's mouth fell open as she let out a laugh of disbelief. Well, less disbelief and more surprise. It wasn't so much that it was what Kai thought, in was right on brand for him, really, but more so that his comment sounded less scathing and more teasing. Either he was making a joke, or her illness was making her delirious. The latter seemed more plausible, really. She didn't have time to ask him as he got up and left the room in long strides. She stuck her tongue out at his back and slumped on the couch after reaching for the mug of tea again.

A few more sips and her stomach had settled considerably. People could keep their medicine tablets and pills; she was raised on and swore by the healing properties that a proper tea could provide. Even her headache seemed to have eased away, thanks to the peppermint.

Crystal grabbed the remote and turned on the tv, leaving it on some baking show. She took sips of the tea every now and then and when she tilted her head back to drain the mug, she spotted Kai coming back into the room with a bowl in one hand and a box in the other. She set the mug down and took the bowl he held out to her. She studied the broth soup for a few seconds before she noticed what was in his hand when he landed unceremoniously onto the empty space on the couch.

"Wait, you get pocky?" she asked, eyeing the biscuit stick that he'd pulled out of the red box. The snap of the treat before he chewed was his response. "I want that, then! I don't want this."

"You're sick," he stated.

"Right. Doesn't that get me special privileges?"

"No."

"Haven't you ever heard of the saying sharing is caring?" He didn't reply. She reached out and poked him in the arm. For a moment became bewildered at just how hard his muscle was in his upper arm. "You're supposed to be nice to me."

"Shut up and eat, Manning."

She didn't think she'd win that battle; Kai wasn't necessarily nice, but still she had to try. Grumbling, she turned her attention back to the steaming bowl of soup in her hands. Really, she should thank him for making it for her but there was an injustice at hand that she couldn't let go of! She dipped her spoon in the darkened broth and poured it out, over and over. It mixed with the sound of the snaps of pocky pieces he broke off and ate. Jerk.

She lifted a spoonful of the soup to her mouth and settled back against the couch, only to groan at the flavors that exploded on her tongue. Warmth settled into her stomach and wrapped around her like a hug. Just what she needed when she felt so cruddy.

She glanced at Kai out of the corner of her eye. Engrossed with the judging by Paul Hollywood of the tarts that the contestants made, he didn't seem to notice. Good thing or else he would've seen the plethora of questions running through her mind on her face. Just how long had he been there and why would he step away from work? And for her of all people? She was still fairly new to his space and life; they didn't particularly talk. Not like she did with Ray or Hilary or Max (not that Kai was a talker). And yet here he was.

"You have a lot of work to do?" Crystal asked, looking back at the screen as it flashed a shot of someone's apple tart. Her stomach growled.

"Some," Kai replied. He took another bite of pocky.

She nodded and turned her attention back to The Great British Baking Show. Well then. Her mouth lifted in the corners applying a very cat-like smirk to her face. As the show went on they continued to eat and watch in silence. Overtime her stomach eased, her appetite steadily returned and, before she knew it, she had gobbled down the soup feeling ten times better than she had when she woke up earlier that morning.

Perhaps that meant she should get to work on catching up with the schoolwork she most certainly missed out on, or started the dishes that had been piling up, or do some laundry for the Grangers before they returned, just to feel as if she'd earned her keep, but…it was much too peaceful in the empty dojo. Much too relaxing watching the baking contestants kneading dough, chopping and blitzing and measuring ingredients, and putting finishing touches on their creative masterpieces. It could wait. Like Kai's work, apparently.

A flush of warmth spread through her at the invading thought and she ducked her head to allow her long hair to hide the red that was no doubt seeping into her cheeks. How pathetic. But still, despite how…silly it was to be so flustered over such a simple thought—the squeezing of her stomach was due to remaining effects of illness, she told herself—well, his actions certainly spoke more than his mouth did.

A large yawn seized her body, the warmth of the tea and soup allowing another sleepy haze to tug on her eyelids. She stretched and then, without a second thought, lay over until she stretched across the length of the couch with her head resting in Kai's lap. He stiffened beneath her, but she didn't care. "Yeah, I'm using you as a pillow. Get over it," she mumbled, pulling the blanket tighter around her.

He could have said something. He could have shoved her off. He could have gone to do the work he claimed he had to do. He could have fought back. But he didn't. He made a grunting sound and then stayed still. And she lay still, completely comfortable and at ease. There was something to be said for being able to sit in complete silence with someone, watching a baking competition show from the UK, and feel comfortable. Relaxed. Safe. A small smile blossomed when a stick of pocky poked her cheek and she took and ate the treat before Kai could change his mind.

As her eyelids drooped to a close, Crystal made a mental note to thank Ray for sending Kai over.